Pulling into the campus at 6:45 AM the sunlight was draped, in Dali clock fashion, over the top and front of Snoqualmie Hall, and the campus was so quiet. It must be the early hour, because today is the first day of summer quarter. I was reminded of Shelley's line, "As beautiful as a wreck of paradise," from his poem, Epipsychidion.
Soon the campus will be bustling with students, though not as crowded as it would be any of the other three quarters. Summer quarter has a slower feel to it, which belies the actual intensity of its compressed calendar.
Summer quarter is a starting point for many students, getting a prerequisite class or two out of the way before diving into fall, winter, and spring quarters. New beginnings, or at least a continuation for our returning students.
Today is also an ending day for me. We lost a dear colleague this weekend, to cancer. Today our office assembles with an all-too-painfully-obvious empty desk in our midst. Tears, hugs, stories, remembrances, and even some laughter at memories of the time before this separation. Some work is getting done, too, but half heartedly.
Shelley, same poem, comes to mind again with another phrase lifted out of context, but appropriate to the moment even so: "...make the present last, in thoughts and joys which sleep, but cannot die, folded within their own eternity."
Such is the power of memories.
Today's commute playlist:
- Dr. Dog: Heavy Light
- Belle and Sebastian: Nightwalk
- Bruce Cockburn: God Bless The Children
- Seamus Egan: Mick O'Connor's
- Fountains of Wayne: Fire in the Canyon
- Posted via Hermes.
1 comment:
Beautiful, and moving, as usual. Thanks for this remembrance of our loss.
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